I could not walk without support just 5 years ago. I was this close to surgery.
Long story short I could not walk any longer and was falling down and then scared as F-K called the ambulance and was at the hospital for my first MRI ever. My MRI was Stenosis Disk Degeneration and Herniation's. My history has me on the FFG from 1994-1999. I found out recently, the medical history in digital format I never saw before, that my Navy ARmy Transfer was indeed disqualified for Spine and Musculoskeletal and Psych 1998.
Post Navy, I did all sorts of hard things just to get food etc etc etc.
Now without surgery the inversion table has been the 1 point of reference for me to get back to walking without the pain. I can't load my body with weight like I used to. But to walk without pain I will take it!! It has been years of therapy daily daily daily. I mean I need to basically say daily a million times. Because no pain no gain. Going upside down is basically a daily exercise to decompress not on the spine but every tissue in the body. You are also recirculating the blood. You are doing a back flush of your system.
I believe that this flush also helps with mental health. It is basically like upside down decompression 5 minute meditation daily.
A 5 minute upside down session is about the limit of my experiences.
You wont get full relaxation and decompression for a while. First your ankles will be sore. THen you knees. The gravity will slowly work through each small joint and rebuild it. It works inward then out Word. The smallest to the largest joints and tissues is the path way as gravity breaks down the first weakest tissues and unlocks the bigger ones and rebuilds it all.
A yoga swing is something that is portable and can be used in the field as well on a tree or pull up bar. It locks you off at the hips but gets a decompression from that point on, which when mixed with the inversion table that locks you off at the feet then you get different stretches.
Mixing decompression stretches daily will save you.
If you are young and just getting started in the military then caring a yoga swing with you or getting access to a inversion table would be a great daily routine as well. Your body whether you can comprehend it or not is taking on a daily gravity load that will eventually make more sense to you when you get body aches decades later because you never did any inversion from the get go!!
If this helps or you need some more information let me know!
Best
A